Titans Report Card (Vol. 2): Final Grade For Punter Ryan Stonehouse
Second in a series
NASHVILLE — When things were going really bad for the Tennessee Titans earlier in this 2023 season, there was a running joke that punter Ryan Stonehouse just might be the most valuable player on this team.
He was used a lot, which happens when you punt for a team with a bad offense, and he did his job well, right up until he was destroyed by the Indianapolis Colts' punt rush on Dec. 3 for the second time in the same game. Thanks to a complete lack of protection, he had one punt blocked for a touchdown, and then on the next punt, he got hit before he could even get it off. He wound up getting hurt and needed knee surgery, missing the rest of the season.
That's a sad way to get a good grade, but he earned it. He was one of the best punters in the league before his injury.
This is the second in our series of report cards on Titans' players, and we're starting at the top with the best grades, and we'll work our way down through the list.
Here is punter Ryan Stonehouse's report card.
Stonehouse by the numbers
Stonehouse, a 24-year-old from Colorado State who is in his second year with the Titans, averaged 53.1 yards per punt this season. It's the second straight year he landed on the same exact number, and that ranked No. 1 in all of the NFL and is a league record. His net averaged ranked No. 3.
Here's an amazing stat that says a lot about his consistency: In 10 of his 12 games this year, he had at least one punt of 57 yards or more. He had four punts of 70 yards or more, and five of 60 or more.
He flipped the field often for the Titans, and many times in came late in games where that field position really mattered.
Titans punter Ryan Stonehouse was having another record-breaking year before getting hurt on Dec. 3.
George Walker IV / USA Today Sports
Best game
There are two games that stand out, actually, both of them Titans victories. In the 28-23 win over Atlanta on Oct. 29, a big deal was made — and rightly so — about Will Levis' four touchdown passes in his NFL debut. But outside of those scoring drives, the Titans struggled to convert on third down.
Stonehouse was busy that day, punting eight times, with six of them landing inside the 20. The Falcons only returned one — for 6 yards. His punts forced the Atlanta offense to deal with bad field position the whole game, and the Titans hung on to win.
It was a very similar story against Carolina, the worst team in the league. In the 17-10 win on Nov. 26, the Titans offense struggled to get much done. Carolina's offense — the worst in the league with only 236 points all year — wasn't much better, and it helped that Stonehouse kept them buried all day, too. He had seven punts, including a 71-yarder, and five were inside the 20. The Panthers only returned two of them, for a total of 9 yards. The Titans completely dominated the field-position game.
Intangibles
Stonehouse is a young guy, but he's one of those teammates that's always got a smile on his face. He's also the holder for kicker Nick Folk — we'll be getting to him real soon in this series, too — and did a great job with that. It's no coincidence that when Stonehouse got hurt in that Colts game that Folk missed his first extra point of the season with Ryan Tannehill holding.
Let's not forget that Titans lost that game in overtime. That PAT miss in regulation was the difference between winning and losing. Stonehouse had a lot of value in a lot of different ways.
Ryan Stonehouse has averaged 53.1 yards per punt two years in a row, which is the best in NFL history.
George Walker IV / Tennessean.com / USA Today Network
Final grade — A
I thought about making this an A-minus, but the more I thought about it, I really couldn't think of anything he did wrong throughout the year to lower it. He was that good. When you're setting NFL records for the second year in a row, it's hard to complain.
He's earned in A. He's attacking rehab hard and hopes to be back for the start of next season. Let's hope he is.
Titans' final grades so far
- DeANDRE HOPKINS (A): The best move the Tennessee Titans made all season was signing free agent wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins in the summer. He had another 1,000-yard season, so he's the perfect player to start our ''Report Card'' series following the end of the 2023 season. Let's start doling out some grades. CLICK HERE
